Fimbulwinter (Daniel Black) (22 page)

future. I don’t have any detailed intelligence on the disposition of enemy

forces, however. There was a pack of Ungols lurking in the next village

upriver yesterday, and there seem to be goblins and trolls everywhere.”

“The giants are working their way down from the north,” Captain Rain

put in. “If we send scavenging parties south we should be able to avoid them

for a few more days.”

“That works for now, but what about when they do get here?” The

Baron objected. “We need a lot more grain, or we’ll be putting most of those

refugees to the sword when they start to riot. How do we get more food?”

I looked the room over as the men struggled with that one. There was

only one empty place at the table, a rickety-looking stool all the way down at

the foot where I’d be scrunched against a wall. Petty revenge? Well, letting

him make me look unimportant was probably a bad idea, but I couldn’t just

claim a better spot at this point. There were messengers and servants standing

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back against the walls to either side of the table, so I didn’t want to look like

one of them either. I needed some subtle way of making myself look different.

There was a crude map drawn on the wall to the left of the table, so I

stepped into the middle of the open space to the right where I could pretend to

be looking across the table at it. Then I reached into my cloak, and pulled out a

heavy staff made of polished granite that I conjured up on the spot. I set the butt

of the heavy implement down on the floor and adopted my best Wise Old

Wizard pose as the conversation ground to a halt.

“Felwolves are edible,” I pointed out as the men eyed me in surprise.

“One of them could probably feed the whole town for a day or two, and the

giants keep a lot of them around. Every time they attack the town they’ll be

giving us more provisions.”

“Can we even hold the town against them?” One of the men I didn’t

know asked nervously. “They’ll be here before that new wall of yours is

finished, and the old one won’t keep them out.”

“Grow some balls, Erland!” The Baron growled. “If some raiding band

bothers us we’ll run them off! Holger and I hunted drakes together, I think we

can handle a few mangy giants. Hell, even our wizard might join in.”

I nodded. “Of course. Ballistae should work on them as well, if you

have any, and massed arrow fire would be worth a try. If you’re really worried

you could start setting stakes in the moat before it fills with snow. If you make

them the right size that should work even better on giants than it does human

troops.”

Another man scratched his head in puzzlement. “Why’s that?”

Was I really going to try to explain the square-cube law to these

people? Well, maybe in simple terms.

“The same reason a cat can jump out of a tree and walk off unhurt,

where a horse that fell the same distance would probably break its neck. The

bigger a creature is the more anything that uses its own weight as a weapon

will hurt it.”

“It’s not worth the labor,” Stein objected. “But the ballistae are a

thought. Nels, have your boys take down the ones by the river gate and move

them over to the other side of town. We can shift the others as the new wall

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gets built, until we’ve got one on every tower in the gap.”

One of the knights nodded. “Will do, milord. I don’t suppose you can

do anything about the weather, sir wizard? All these damned blizzards are

slowing the work down a lot.”

I shook my head. “I’m afraid weather magic isn’t one of my talents. If

something critical comes up I can hold a spell over a small area to keep the

wind and snow off, but I imagine finishing the wall is more urgent for now.”

Stein grunted. “Let’s get back on track. Alvar, you’ll shift the

scavenging parties south until the next meeting. Erland, finish checking the

shops and refugees for food hoards. Holger, how’s your business looking?”

The High Priest stood.

“There’s some good news, at least. I’ve received word that the Red

Conclave is assembling in Kozalin, and is preparing a grand working to turn

back the weather. Also, Prince Casper is visiting the embassies of the fair folk

there to propose alliances, and the Queen of the Seelie Court has been

receptive to the idea. That’s particularly significant because the fair folk stand

outside of prophecy.”

A murmur went around the room at that, and Holger smiled grimly.

“Indeed. So don’t give up hope, men. The rise of mortal magic was

never predicted in the old sagas, and with this alliance there’s every chance

we can break this unnatural winter before the Traitor God’s forces can unveil

the path to the Bifrost. We need but hold fast for a few weeks, and then the

tables will be turned.”

Yeah, like it was going to be that easy to stop an alliance of evil gods.

But I kept my mouth shut, because it was obvious the men needed something to

hope for. It was amazing how much the moon of the room lifted at that simple

pronouncement.

“That’s good to hear,” Baron Stein put in. “Can we expect

reinforcements?”

The priest shook his head. “Not quickly. The Griffon Knights are going

to be scouting and lending aid to key points, but I think we’re a bit too far north

for them to reach us. The king is urging all fortified settlements to simply hold

out for now, and give the wizards time to do their work.”

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“That we can do,” Stein nodded. “My town isn’t going to fall to a

bunch of Odin-cursed monsters. Greger, you’ve been at loose ends since you

got into town. I want you to open up the west barracks and recruit yourself an

oversized company of militia from the refugees. Make sure you get the young

ones, and issue them spears from the war stock.”

An older knight with a touch of grey at his temples blinked in surprise.

“I can do that, milord. But militia won’t be worth much against trolls or giants,

even if I mix in my men to stiffen them a bit.”

“Ah, that’s not the point. It’ll keep them out of mischief, and if the best

of the refugees are all in the militia the rest won’t be able to cause so much

trouble. When we do get a real attack we can throw them into the worst of it as

a distraction, and then we’ll have that many less troublemakers to worry

about.”

Greger nodded in understanding. A younger man leaned in to ask,

“Have you made a decision about the camp wench question, milord?”

“Yes. I’ll allow it, but I want all of you to enforce strict limits. Only

one girl per five men, and they can draft refugees but not townsfolk. Sergeants

can keep one of their own, and they’re in charge of settling disputes if the men

can’t agree on who they want. I suppose we’ll have to let them keep their

wenches in the barracks or they’ll freeze to death, but no sweet-talking the men

into letting anyone else in. We’re crowded enough as it is.”

My, what classy people. I tried to keep my expression blank as I

listened, but it wasn’t easy. I was seriously tempted to just kill everyone in the

room and take over the town.

But that wouldn’t work. Their men wouldn’t follow me, especially

after something like that, and it’s not like I had any idea how to run a medieval

town anyway. All I could do at this point was make the place defensible

enough that the giants couldn’t just kill them all.

That, and take a few of the refugees with me when I left this madhouse.

On the good side, at least the meeting didn’t last much longer. Unlike

pretty much every modern manager I’d ever worked with Baron Stein had no

hesitation about making decisions, and his men didn’t feel the need to have an

extended discussion about every little detail. The whole thing probably didn’t

last more than half an hour from the point I walked in the room.

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The Baron gestured for me to stay as his men began clearing out. I

suppressed a sigh, and remained standing until the door closed. He spent a

moment looking over a list of stores one of the men had left him, and then

looked up at me coldly.

“You’re not staying here.”

I shrugged. “I wasn’t planning on it.”

He nodded. “Next time you have a problem with one of my men, bring

it to me.”

“Fair enough,” I agreed.

“Then go finish that wall. Time is getting short.”

I left, a bit relieved that the matter had been laid to rest so easily. I

suppose when you live in a place where life is cheap and brutality is

commonplace that sort of thing doesn’t seem so bad.

Or maybe he was planning to kill me after the wall was done. Better

make sure he didn’t get the chance.

I’d intended to intercept Captain Rain after the meeting, but instead

found that the High Priest was waiting for me on the balcony.

“Good morning, Magus Black. May I trouble you for a few moments of

your time?”

I nodded, grateful I’d remembered to quiz Cerise about forms of

address last night. “Certainly, your Reverence. What can I do for you?”

“Well, first I wanted to make sure you received my package?”

He stated towards the stairs, and I followed. There were servants

scurrying about everywhere, but they practically threw themselves out of the

way as we passed by.

“Yes, I did,” I confirmed. “Although if I’m pushing to finish the wall

quickly it will probably be a couple of days before I can put it to use.”

“Hmm. What do you plan to do once the wall is finished?”

I sighed. “I don’t think the Baron and I are going to get along in the long

run. I expect I’ll move on to another settlement. Maybe I’ll see if there’s

anything I can do to assist the Red Conclave.”

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He gave me a tight-lipped smile. “Indeed, that very topic has been

discussed. I’m sure you guessed that my presentation was… shall we say,

presenting the news in the most favorable possible light? There have been

weather-workings before, but nothing on this scale.”

“I did wonder about that,” I agreed.

“Well, obviously no one expects you to share your secrets. But I sent of

a summary of our conversation last night, and this morning I received an

inquiry about whether your method could supply power to a circle.”

I frowned. “That was fast. Well, in theory I probably could. But I

haven’t actually tested that kind of application yet, and a mistake could be

disastrous. I’d need to spend at least a few days working through the issues

with someone who’s willing to play test subject.”

I also wasn’t eager to trust a bunch of strangers with an unrestricted

power tap, especially after the last few days. Considering how much energy is

involved in large-scale weather I wasn’t optimistic about them accomplishing

anything with it anyway. Nothing I could build was going to have the energy

output to warm up an entire country.

“That’s unfortunate. Still, if you choose to move on to Kozalin I expect

you’ll have a friendly reception from the Conclave. Once you’ve taken care of

that other issue we discussed I’ll also pass word on that to my superiors, so

you’ll have no trouble from the Church.”

Yeah, and if I didn’t he’d tell everyone Cerise was a witch. Damn it, I

hadn’t counted on the priests here having some kind of magical communication

system. Now I was going to need a new disguise, or a way to fool him into

thinking I’d done a binding.

Well, one problem at a time.

“I’ll think about it,” I told him. “I’ll help to the extent I can, but

conditions right now don’t make travel easy.”

He grimaced. “Yes, I suppose you have a point. Well, I’d better let you

get to work. But do let me know when you come to a decision.”

We parted ways at the doors of the keep. He made for the temple,

which was located near the wall on the opposite side of town from the river. I

started for my tower, but thought better of it and decided to find Captain Rain

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instead.

His surviving men turned out to be using a little waterfront tavern as a

barracks. The owner of the place had died some days ago in a goblin attack,

but the building itself was intact and the main room had more than enough

space to quarter the surviving members of the shattered unit.

Captain Rain was using the living quarters upstairs, while his little

group of concubines ran the kitchen with the help of what I suspected were

more camp followers. There were a lot more men about than I’d expected,

though.